Star Trek Could Return To The Small Screen

For many fans, Star Trek belongs on the small screen, rather than spread across a movie theater. After all, the franchise started on television in 1966, so it seems fitting that there should be some iteration of Star Trek on TV. Now that Marvel has found success on the boob tube with Agents of SHIELD, and Lucasfilm is looking to branch out into the business with Star Wars, will Paramount and CBS bring the series back to television?

While J.J. Abrams downplays the possibilities of Star Trek returning to TV, one of the writers and producers of the reboot film series is taking meetings with the broadcast network that could make this dream a reality. Roberto Orci recently told reporters, namely Joe Michalczuk of Sky News in England, that Star Trek on TV is at least a possibility with “America’s Most Watched Network.”

Bob Orci just told me they've had a meeting with CBS to revive @StarTrek on TV…This made me v excited

While Orci is saying one thing, Abrams is saying something completely different. A few weeks ago, the future Star Wars director talked about the possibilities of Star Trek returning to television. He had this to say on the matter: “What I’ve been told from the powers that be [at CBS] is that they’re not interested.” So who do we believe in this situation?

The high ratings for Agents of SHIELD on ABC might have changed the tune for the network types. While they might not want to get burned again with a Star Trek series (Enterprise didn’t exactly blow minds), they might want to reconsider given the current state of television. Genre TV is just as big as genre movies when you consider the popularity of The Walking Dead, SHIELD, and all the other horror and sci-fi-themed shows on the airwaves. The network might not want to sully the Star Trek reboots with a spin-off series, but the opportunity for high ratings may prove too hard to resist.

Popular television producer Bryan Fuller opened up about the possibilities of bringing Star Trek back to TV. Fuller spent four years as a writer on Deep Space Nine and Star Trek Voyager, before launching his own shows like Dead Like Me, Wonderfalls, Pushing Daisies, and Hannibal. For Fuller, Trek is “very near and dear property to my heart, and also a philosophy. I would love to create a Star Trek show, so that’s on my dream docket.”

While it’s unlikely that Fuller and Abrams would team-up, there is some interest from within producers’ circles. Star Trek got its start on TV and it was almost 10 years between the original series and the first feature film in 1979. There is a big universe out there, and it’s a shame that it’s only on the big screen. Hopefully, CBS and Paramount will change their minds about a new Star Trek TV series, but until then, fans will just have to wait for Star Trek 3 in 2016.

The difference with SHIELD is that it stays true to the canon of the movies whereas Enterprise tried to be too clever and rewrote things (the Borg showing up, races with holodecks, Ferengi and even the Temporal Cold War, AKA an excuse to have advanced tech around even though it was set before TOS) that as a fan, just didn’t ring true.

If they were to try and bring ST back to the small screen, they’d have to do it right, fans have proven they will turn off if a show doesn’t live up to their expectations (Heroes, anyone?). Having said that, I hope they do, it is where the continuing adventures of the Federation belong.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. There needs to be a series that covers NCC-1701B with Capt Harriman and after that a series that covers NCC-1701C with Capt Garrett. With all the reboot buzz I would love to see some stuff involving those two story lines

It’s obvious that Enterprise didn’t work because they ignored and broke the formula. Even the theme song strayed from what came before. The logical thing would be to jump ahead like Next Gen did. It would be great to see the federation spread into other quadrants and explore where technology has taken them. Not to mention, you can use characters like Tuvok and Worf as they would still be alive and have aged appropriately for the long lifespans of Vulcans and Klingons. I, by no means, want to see a series set in the Abrams timeline or in between what came before. Go further into the future!

Here’s an idea.
Is the ENTERPRISE the *ONLY* star ship in the entire Star Trek Universe?
Nope?

Then there’s an endless number of interesting stories yet untapped.
They can redo Classic Trek *AS* Classic Trek, but with another star ship, another captain, another crew, and new adventures. And best of all, when the ENTERPRISE (whichever era) survives the fleet destruction, we can reboot the premise by simply killing off all the know crew, blowing up the ship, whatever is thrilling.

Think of it this way, In the HARRY POTTER movies, the main character, Harry Potter has many adventures, but all the other characters are living their own lives, having their own trials triumphs & failures, every other character has a story all to themselves happening at the same time in the exact same universe during the midst of fantastic events. Some characters will only hear rumors, some will be spectators, some will be uncelebrated heroes, some will assist in the villainy.

Whole lives untapped for storytelling value & profit and all happening at the same time in the same universe. Part of a large tapestry of events and many events in the same timeline that never got notice because they had nothing at all to do with the ENTERPRISE starship (directly or even peripherally).

c’mon folks enterprise was a good show. the only bad thing about it was it was sandwiched between two shows on a network that was not “sci-fi” friendly. T’pal was the hottest vulcan on tv or the big screen including Kirstie Ally, ( i wonder how her ears truly got pointed)!